Paris authorities banned an anti-police protest that was planned to take place in one of the city’s central squares on Saturday following riots that set cities and towns across France on fire after police shot and killed an unarmed Muslim teenage delivery driver.
The protest ban was announced by police on their website. They claimed that the demonstration scheduled at the Place de la Republique could be a danger to public order in “a context of tensions.”
A Paris court upheld the ban on Friday, according to the New York Post. So far, the riots, looting, and violence in Paris have reportedly caused over $1 billion worth of damage to local businesses. More than 45,000 police officers were deployed in response to the violence. Hundreds of cops were hurt fighting the enraged mobs.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin remarked that more than 3,000 people, mostly teenagers, had been arrested in six nights of riots that ended a week ago, according to Reuters. Some 2,500 buildings were damaged in the riots.
It all started after a police officer shot and killed 17-year-old Nahel Mezouk at a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on June 27.
Seeing the destruction and mayhem taking place, the family of the deceased teen has pleaded with rioters to stop.
“Don’t destroy the schools, don’t destroy the buses,” said the boy’s grandmother, Nadia according to the New York Post. “I’m telling them to stop.”
Protesters have torched cars, attacked police stations, and burned churches across the country.
A 16th century church in France is set ablaze and burns to the ground during the riots that have engulfed France, spurred on by groups of migrant men.
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) July 8, 2023
“In the press and even on the TV news, it was mainly Paris and its suburbs, Lyon and Marseille that were talked about,” Philippe Van-Hoorne, who is the mayor of L’Aigle, a town in Normandy, stated. “But when you look, there were also incidents in a certain number of small communities, Unfortunately, the increase of uncivil behavior, of violence, is developing even in modest towns like ours … It’s very hard to solve.”
In the southern French town of Quissac, protesters bombarded the local police station with fireworks, damaging metal shutters, and setting fire to a cypress tree. There are only 3,300 people in the town and it was a first for them, according to authorities.
The demonstration against police violence in Paris that was to take place on Saturday was called for by the family of Adama Traore, a black Frenchman who died in police custody in one of the city’s suburbs in 2016, according to the New York Post.
Paris : Grosses tensions entre Assa Traore et ses complices et les forces de l’ordre.#Republique pic.twitter.com/EUUHbTr2Hw
— Réalité Actuelle (@ReaActuelle) July 8, 2023
Ça se tend durant un instant à République, après la conférence de presse d’Assa Traoré nassés par les gendarmes. Bousculade. pic.twitter.com/oesI6xt2Pn
— Remy Buisine (@RemyBuisine) July 8, 2023
Traore’s older sister, Assa Traore, planned to lead the march north of Paris.
“The government has decided to add fuel to the fire [and] not to respect the death of my little brother,” she said in a video. “They authorize marches by neo-Nazis but they don’t allow us to march. France cannot give us moral lessons. Its police is racist and violent.”
Instead of the planned protest, she said she would attend a rally in central Paris’s Place de la Republique to tell “the whole world that our dead have the right to exist, even in death.”
More than 1,000 protesters defied the ban on Saturday and marched in central Paris against police violence, according to Reuters. Police forcefully dispersed the crowd.
After days of race rioting in France that pushed police to the edge, an unrelated & unlawful BLM-style protest was violently shut down by police in Paris. Those trying to intervene or get close like they do in the US are shoved & hit back. #FranceProtests
pic.twitter.com/Tl02weXHNH— Andy Ngô ️ (@MrAndyNgo) July 8, 2023
“We still enjoy freedom of expression in France, but freedom of assembly, in particular, is under threat,” proclaimed Felix Bouvarel, a health worker who came to the gathering despite the ban which he called “shocking.”
The unrest has been growing for years after France threw open its borders taking in millions of Muslim refugees who now feel oppressed and ostensibly want to take over the country. President Emmanuel Macron seems impotent when it comes to wresting back control of his homeland.
A muslim migrant blames “racism” and colonialism for the recent race riots in France; Says “they colonized us for 132 years now it’s our turn to colonize your country”.
France to revoke his passport and send him back to Algeria pic.twitter.com/aXBMnGosg3— Megh Updates ™ (@MeghUpdates) July 8, 2023
Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE
- Freedom of speech is on this ballot. UK-like rules, imprisonments for violations seem imminent with Kamala - November 4, 2024
- ‘I’m done!’ Hugh Hewitt rips off headset, storms off ‘unfair’ WaPo Live stream - November 1, 2024
- With 1 week to go, Jared Kushner talks chances of Ivanka pitching in to help Trump get elected - October 30, 2024
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.